


Congratulations, It's a Three-Year-Old

by Perpetual Motion (perpetfic)



Series: Baby Thomas [8]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Baby Thomas, Barisi - Freeform, Blended family, F/M, Kidfic, M/M, No Drama, and it's pretty great, brief mentions of a sex shop and tiny dicks - non-sexual, ding dings, kids being embarassing, this is all toni's fault, thomas has three dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 16:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17144774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/Perpetual%20Motion
Summary: It's Jefferson's first time dropping Thomas off with Rafael and Sonny without Chloe being there, and he feels like he has some explaining to do (not really, but he's nervous).





	Congratulations, It's a Three-Year-Old

**Jefferson:** I fucked up. [Image attached]

 **Chloe:** WHAT THE HELL. OMG. 

**Chloe:** Oh, god, don't make me laugh. It hurts to laugh.

 **Jefferson:** He wouldn't let it go. He spotted it by the register and I was too slow to stop him. I spent five minutes trying to talk him out of it. I didn't know what to do, so I bought it. ????

 **Chloe:** Sometimes, it's the only thing you can do. Three-year-olds are assholes. 

**Jefferson:** I have to drop him off at Rafael's and Sonny's, and he's still not letting it go.

 **Chloe:** Honey, it's fine. The guys won't care. Just explain how it happened.

 **Jefferson:** "Hi. Sorry I took your kid into a sex shop. Chloe said it was okay."

 **Chloe:** It is okay. You were just in there for dick-shaped bachelorette party stuff. It's not like I asked you to buy me a dildo. If they give you any shit, call me. I'll remind Rafael who taught Thomas his first word. 

**Jefferson:** Man, I love you.

 **Chloe:** Love you, too. I promise it's not as bad as you think it is. 

*

"I am so sorry," Jefferson says as soon as Rafael opens the apartment door. 

"Hi, Jefferson," Rafael replies, his welcoming smile falling into an amused look. He crouches down so he's eye-to-eye with Thomas. "Hey, _conjeito_."

" _Papi_!" Thomas thrusts out his right hand. "I got a ding ding!"

Jefferson watches as Rafael grabs gently at Thomas's wrist so he can see what Thomas is showing him. He looks at it, looks up at Jefferson, and then focuses back on Thomas. "Where'd you get that?"

"We went to the mom store!"

Jefferson watches Rafael swallow back a laugh and feels relaxed for the first time since Thomas had grabbed the damn thing and announced it was his favorite thing ever.

"Daddy's in the study," Rafael says. "You should show him."

"Okay!" Thomas takes three steps, pauses, spins around, and throws himself against Jefferson's legs to hug him. "Bye!"

"Bye," Jefferson says, ruffling Thomas's hair. He watches Thomas run out of the room and announce himself to Sonny in the office. He hears Sonny's answering greeting and meets Rafael's eyes when the word 'ding ding' comes loud and clear down the hall.

"Coffee?" Rafael asks. "Looks like you need it."

Jefferson sighs and nods. "Yeah. I am really sorry about that." He gestures vaguely towards the office when Rafael gives him a confused look. "The ding ding." He rolls his eyes. "I'm sorry I bought your kid a tiny, squishy penis with eyes."

Rafael laughs. "It makes him happy. It's fine." He pours two cups of coffee and slides one to Jefferson.

"Really? I wasn't even sure I should be taking him into the, uh…"

"Mom store," Rafael supplies, grinning. "Nice thing to call it. I'm assuming Chloe came up with that."

"Yeah."

"I'll make sure Sonny knows."

"That I know what?" Sonny asks, coming out of the office. Thomas is on his shoulders, the ding ding still in one hand. "Hi, Jefferson."

"Hi," Jefferson says. 

"What the mom store is," Rafael answers.

Sonny snorts. "I figured it out when Thomas showed me his new friend." He grins at Jefferson. "You okay? You look a little spooked."

"I wasn't sure it'd be great to show up here with Thomas and...his new friend. I didn't want to seem like the creepy boyfriend you have to worry about around your kid."

"What? We'd never think that," Sonny says. 

"Without evidence," Rafael adds.

"Don't be a d--ding ding," Sonny says to Rafael.

Rafael laughs. "Ding ding," he mutters, and Sonny laughs along with him. 

Jefferson's surprised to find himself laughing as well. His earlier worry disappears, and the whole situation just feels...dumb. But in a good way.

"Seriously, Sonny says, clapping Jefferson on the arm, "We trust you. You know Chloe trusts you, but we do too. We've been really excited to see you two getting serious."

"Agreed," Rafael says. "You've been very understanding about our entire situation, which isn't completely out of the ordinary, but it's still a bit weird. You're great with Thomas."

"Honestly, any of us would have bought him that thing," Sonny says, reaching back to press a hand to Thomas's back as he kicks his feet and knocks himself a little off-balance. "Easy, kiddo. I don't wanna drop you."

"You won't drop me," Thomas says. He's bouncing the ding ding on Sonny's hair and making rocket noises when he lifts it over his head. 

"Hell, Chloe would have made sure we each had one," Rafael says, and Sonny and Jefferson chuckle in agreement. "So, really, it's a good thing she's sick and you had to make the run for the tacky bachelorette supplies she needed for Maria's party. I have enough toys in my office that _don't_ make people wonder if I'm on a watch list."

"And a...ding ding is the last thing I need falling out of my briefcase when I'm meeting new clients," Sonny adds.

"How's the job so far?" Jefferson asks without thinking. "You've been there a month now, right?"

"Just over," Sonny says. "It's going really well. I'm mostly still on research, but I've started to meet new clients as they come. There's a lot of crossover between tactics of abusers in general, but especially when you're going from a background like SVU into this sort of religion-influenced abuse work. My learning curve's not nearly as steep as the other new hires, so I'm trying to help them where I can so we can all be on the same level faster. I'm really looking--" 

"Daddy, down," Thomas interrupts.

Sonny crouches down so Thomas can get off his shoulders. "I think we bored him," Sonny says as they watch Thomas barrel towards his room. He walks around the kitchen island and pours himself a cup of coffee. 

"Well, after a visit to the mom store, how could we possibly be interesting?" Rafael asks. He gestures to the dining table, and they all sit down. "How's Chloe feeling, anyway? She's been pretty quiet on the group chat."

"The cough's finally letting up, but she's still pretty sore." Jefferson taps a finger on the table, suddenly remembering. "She said you'd have soup," he says to Sonny. "I was threatened if I didn't come back with soup."

"I'll put a sticky note on the door," Sonny says. "Unless you need to leave right away."

"No, I'm good to stay a bit if I'm not in the way."

"Of course you're not in the way," Sonny says with a wave. "We're always happy to see you."

Rafael gives Jefferson a once-over that makes Jefferson feel like he's gotten an X-ray. "You're an only child, right?" Rafael asks. "And your parents are still married?"

"Yeah."

"Not around kids much before this, huh?"

"...no," Jefferson says slowly. "What about it?"

"Only child of a single mother with limited kid experience. I didn't have the nuclear family like you did, but I know what you're going through a little bit."

Jefferson leans back in his chair, giving Rafael a challenging look that Rafael meets with a grin. "Yeah? What am I going through?"

"You met an amazing person who happened to have a tiny human. It was a package deal, and you accepted, but now you're actually interacting with the tiny human a lot. You're dedicated to him, but at the same time, you're afraid you're gonna drop him on his head."

Jefferson chuckles. "Okay, yeah. That's kind of what I'm going through. But I'm surprised you did. You've been here since he was born."

"I got a month's notice that I'd have to be a father," Rafael replies. He glances at Sonny as Sonny retakes his seat at the table, and his face goes soft. "If anyone but Sonny had asked me to do it, I'd have said no."

"Oh, you would not," Sonny says, and Jefferson is struck by the complete confidence in his statement. It reminds him of how easily Chloe waved away his concern about the ding ding. "You're a great dad. You know that."

"I didn't know that when I agreed," Rafael says. He looks at Jefferson again. "My dad was a grade-A asshole. I don't know if Chloe's told you anything about him."

"I asked about your family once, and she said you grew up with your mom and your grandma. Your dad wasn't around much."

"That was a polite way of handling it," Rafael replies. "I appreciate it. My point is, all I knew about being a dad was that I didn't want to be an alcoholic or an abuser or useless. But I also wasn't sure I wanted to be a dad at all. And for the first few months, it was terrifying."

"It was terrifying for all of us," Sonny says. "I mean, yes, I wanted to be a dad, but I wasn't expecting it to happen like it did. Chloe and I picked out a name forty-eight hours after she told me she was pregnant, and three weeks later, there he is. We didn't even have his room painted, and then after he was born, we were worried the fumes wouldn't air out before he came over to stay."

"And he wasn't even a full person then," Rafael says. He rolls his eyes when Sonny gives him a long-suffering look. "He was a loaf. He was a loaf of person. He didn't have a personality, and he couldn't talk back--"

"It's so telling those are the traits you focus on," Sonny teases.

"My point," Rafael continues, staring Sonny down until they both grin. "Is that it's terrifying to realize you want to be a father because then, well, you have to be a father."

Jefferson thinks about that for a minute. "That's what I've agreed to, isn't it?" Rafael and Sonny both nod at him. "Wow. Okay. I hadn't--I mean, yes, I knew I agreed, but…"

"It takes awhile to sink in, trust me," Rafael says. "And Sonny and I are glad to have you here. You make Chloe happy. Thomas loves you. It lets us both breathe a little easier knowing there's someone else we can trust for pick up and drop off and doctors' visits and the whole long list."

"We're glad you're devoted to him the way he deserves," Sonny says. "I don't think we've ever told you, but he talks about you all the time. He thinks you're great."

"He's a great kid," Jefferson says with a shrug. "He makes it easy."

"He does," Rafael agrees with a smile. "So, don't worry about the little stuff. We get it. We're his dads, too."

"I really appreciate you saying that, but that doesn't change the fact that this is the first time I dropped him off alone, and he walked in with a dick in his hand."

"His first word was 'asshole' because of me," Rafael says. 

"I ended up being the first one to drop him on his head," Sonny adds. "Well, his face. When he first practiced walking, I let go because I thought he had it, and down he went."

"I didn't know that," Jefferson says. 

"And Chloe was the one who was holding him the first time he decided he needed to lick a subway seat," Sonny says. "He screamed his head off for six stops."

"To be fair, I'd do that if I licked a subway seat _now_ ," Jefferson replies. They share a grin and settle into silence. "So," Jefferson says after a minute, "As his new dad," and he has to pause to take that word in. It's the first time he's said it to anyone but Chloe, and he's been worried about saying it in front of Rafael and Sonny in case they thought he was overstepping. "What first, exactly, is this one?"

"You got a good one," Sonny says. "You've got the first story we're gonna tell every person he brings over for Sunday dinner for the rest of his life."

"And you have the bonus of having been there when it happened. You're gonna tell it best," Rafael says. 

"We'll get you added to the group chat," Sonny says. "It's past time, really."

Jefferson realizes he's nodding like they're making a pact. "Yeah," he agrees. "I think it is."

**Author's Note:**

> There will be no drama bullshit about who is the "real" dad or dads in this universe. This is a family unit that likes each other and loves their kid. Thomas may pull some fuckery as a teenager but that's because that's what happens with teenagers. 
> 
> Jefferson showed up briefly for "Parental Half-Day" in the group chat. He and Chloe started dating shortly after Thomas turned two. He's just over three in this story, so it's been about a year. Everyone moved pretty slowly to start to make sure Jefferson would be a good fit for Thomas and the rest of them. 
> 
> Thomas's first word is detailed in "Baby's First (Deeply Questionable) Word."
> 
> I've never had a chance to explicitly state it, and I do plan to write a fic about the transition, but I also want it clear what Sonny's doing for a living: He's working at a non-profit as a lawyer for people who have suffered abuse specifically related to their religious upbringing. This abuse can run the gamut and even include identity abuse (holding onto a person's documents like birth certificate and social security card so they can't get out of the situation). This is a fairly new subset of legal work due to the rise of evangelicals in the last 30 years and also the outflux of people (including wide-ranging banishment for teenage boys) from situations like the Fundamentalist Mormon Church. I can provide some further info if anyone's interested.
> 
> Ding Dings are real. I have three of them on my desk. [Look at that thing and tell me a three-year-old wouldn't love it](https://www.google.com/search?q=ding+ding&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6wbT_1bnfAhVRNX0KHY_1ARcQ_AUIDigB&biw=1920&bih=970). 
> 
> **Btw, I'm no longer on tumblr because of their bullshit anti-porn policy.** If you wanna keep up with me screaming about fandom, I'm at @GaylePerpetual on twitter.


End file.
